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Tragic video shows joking students on South Korea ferry

May 02, 2014

SEOUL - A cellphone video of students aboard a South Korean ferry minutes before it capsized and sank shows them laughing and joking about "the Titanic" as the ship began to tilt.

The initially light-hearted exchanges are rendered all the more poignant and heart-rending by the fact that the video was captured by a 17-year-old student whose body was later recovered from the submerged ferry, along with his cellphone.

"Hey, rescue me," jokes one male student, while another suggests the video would be "fun to put on Facebook" later.

"It's getting like the Titanic," says another as the 6,825-tonne Sewol begins to list further to one side.

The in-built-timer shows the student, Park Su-Hyeon, began recording at 8:52am on April 16, several minutes before the Sewol crew sent out the first distress signal.

Eleven minutes later, the students are still in a jovial mood, with one joking that it might be time to "leave my last words," and others debating whether the incident might get on the news.

The footage was released to the South Korean media by Park's father, with the footage pixillated to hide the identities of the students.

Throughout, a loudspeaker can be heard telling passengers to remain where they are.

The captain and 14 of his crew who survived the sinking have been arrested and widely criticised for delaying the evacuation order until the ship was listing so sharply that escape was almost impossible.

The captain argued that he was worried passengers jumping overboard before rescue vessels arrived would have been swept away and drowned.

"What is the captain doing?" asks one of the students on the video.

Of the 476 people on board the Sewol, 325 were students from the same high school on an organised trip to the holiday resort island of Jeju.

As of Friday morning, the number of confirmed dead was 225, with 77 still missing.

Park's video resumes at around 9:06am, by which time the mood has started to shift towards fear and confusion.

One student complains his legs are shaking and he feels nauseous, while another responds to the tannoy system telling passengers to don lifejackets.

"I don't understand. Putting on lifejackets? Does this mean the boat is sinking?" he says.

The footage is likely to fuel public outrage over the disaster and in particular the behaviour of the captain and crew.

Video footage released by the South Korean coastguard on Monday showed the captain scrambling to safety as hundreds remained trapped inside.

Relatives express their frustration to police chief Choi Sang Han (C) during a briefing on the ongoing rescue and recovery operations of the sunken South Korean ferry 'Sewol', at a gymnasium used as a gathering point for family members of missing passengers

Family members of missing passengers, who were on the South Korean ferry "Sewol" which sank at sea, listen along with media to a briefing from an official from the Korea Coast Guard about a rescue and search operation at a port in Jindo

Song Byung-gu and his wife, whose granddaughter was on the ferry Sewol which sank in the sea off Jindo and has been missing, look at the sea with a pair of binoculars as they wait for news from a rescue team

Students hold messages for missing schoolchildren who are among the unaccounted for passengers trapped in a South Korean capsized ferry, posted on the window of a locked classroom at Danwon High School in Ansan

A medic helps the collapsed family member of a missing passenger from South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, as she cries while waiting for news from the rescue team, at a gym in Jindo April 18, 2014.

The family member of a missing passenger who was on South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, is helped as she cries while waiting for news from the rescue team, at a gym in Jindo April 18, 2014.

The family member of a missing passenger from South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, shouts as he complains to officials from the South Korean Coast Guard, as family members listen to a briefing about the rescue operation, at a gym in Jindo April 18, 2014.

The family member of a missing passenger who was on South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, shouts as she complains to officials from the South Korean Coast Guard, as family members listen a briefing about the rescue operation

The family member of a missing passenger who was on South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, complains to an official from the South Korean Coast Guard as he listens to a briefing about the rescue operation, at a gym in Jindo

A Buddhist monk prays for the missing passengers who were on the South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, at a port where family members of the missing have gathered, in Jindo April 18, 2014

Divers prepare for a search and rescue operation for the South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, at a port where family members of the missing have gathered, in Jindo April 18, 2014

Divers prepare for a search and rescue operation for the South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, at a port where family members of missing passengers have gathered, in Jindo April 18, 2014

Family members of the missing passengers who were on the South Korean ferry "Sewol", which sank in the sea off Jindo, cry as they look towards the port where others have gathered, in Jindo April 18, 2014

South Korean rescue teams, including elite navy SEAL divers, raced to find up to 293 people missing from a capsized ferry carrying 459 passengers and crew -- mostly high school students bound for a holiday island.

About 160 passengers, including high school students, were plucked to safety on Wednesday in a dramatic rescue from a South Korean passenger ferry "Sewol" sinking with 475 on board, officials said, although at least two people had died.

"We heard a big thumping sound and the boat stopped," one passenger told the YTN news channel by telephone. "The boat is tilting and we have to hold on to something to stay seated," the passenger said.

A family member of a missing passenger who was on South Korean ferry "Sewol" which sank in the sea off Jindo cries after finding her son's name in the survivors list at a gym where rescued passengers gathered in Jindo

Family members of missing passengers who were on the South Korean ferry "Sewol" which sank in the sea off Jindo, board a ferry ship heading to the accident site, at a port where family members of missing passengers have gathered, in Jindo

A ferry ship carrying family members of missing passengers who were on the South Korean ferry "Sewol" which sank in the sea off Jindo, sails towards the accident site off a port where family members of missing passengers have gathered, in Jindo

Family members of missing passengers who were on the South Korean ferry "Sewol" which sank in the sea off Jindo wait for the restartof search and rescue operations at a port where family members of missing passengers have gathered, in Jindo

Family members of missing passengers who were on a South Korean ferry "Sewol" which sank in the sea off Jindo cries as she waits for a rescue team's arrival at a port where family members of missing passengers gathered in Jindo